


Hiraeth

by XILVerify



Series: Things That Go Bump [1]
Category: Gugudan (Band), K-pop, VERIVERY (Band), VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Blood and Injury, Families of Choice, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Mythology References, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Female/Female Relationships, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Urban Fantasy, verivery needs more fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23195788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XILVerify/pseuds/XILVerify
Summary: Hiraeth: (n) A homesickness for a home you can't return to, or that never wasAfter he loses his previous home to an unfortunate accident, all Hoyoung wants is to find a place where he has enough food to eat and a warm place to lay his head. Unfortunately, for a nekomata wandering modern Korea in the chilly and rainy early spring, this is easier said than done. However, when he comes upon a tiny house filled with an eclectic assortment of peculiar monsters and their equally peculiar human family of hosts, Hoyoung may have just found the new home he’s been so desperately searching for.(Or: The urban fantasy Jellyfish family AU that no one asked for, but I wrote anyway.)
Series: Things That Go Bump [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1915069
Comments: 38
Kudos: 79





	Hiraeth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Erisette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erisette/gifts).



> Originally based on [this](https://x-i-l-verify.tumblr.com/post/167953787160/morning-feathers-writing-prompt-s-a-child-is) writing prompt on tumblr. However, what I originally expected to be a quick, fun little fic quickly grew in the telling while I was establishing the worldbuilding and characters, until, almost 40 pages of notes and manuscript later, I had to concede that there was no way I’d actually get to the meat of the prompt in any sort of timely fashion and decided to just post what I have. So I’m marking this as complete for now, but do know that this AU potentially has a lot more to it, and depending on the reception this gets, I’m quite open to continuing it in future installments. ;) 
> 
> For my partner in crime, Erisette. Happy birthday! I hope you like it. ♥

Chilly drizzle fell from the dark ominous sky as a stiff wind blew through the outskirts of the city. Most people chose to stay inside on days like today, unless they had someplace to be or nowhere to go. The small, four-legged creature, scurrying along the crumbling, cracked sidewalk unseen by the human eyes around him, was a member of the latter category.

Most would likely have called Hoyoung a cat at first glance, albeit a sorry specimen of one. Whatever color his matted fur had once been was hidden behind multiple layers of filth and grime, and his bones stood out sharply beneath his skin. He walked with a pronounced limp, and the faint paw prints he left behind in the muddy grime on the sidewalk sometimes had a reddish tint to them. However, a closer look at his tufted, foxlike ears, long, forked, black-tipped tail, and the large, golden, glittering eyes holding a humanlike intelligence behind them would have soon revealed that even if he was vaguely feline, he was certainly no ordinary housecat. Despite his wretched appearance, the chill gnawing at his bones, the ache in his empty stomach, and his sore, tender paws, Hoyoung was a monster on a mission. His keen, bright eyes darted here, there, and everywhere as he wandered through the wet streets, his nose turned toward the wind for even the faintest telltale whiff of happiness or positivity.

There! Was that contentment he smelled, coming from that first floor apartment on the end of the block? The thought of finally getting a good meal for the first time in weeks energized his flagging muscles, and Hoyoung darted over and leapt up onto the windowsill, peering inside the little apartment. A middle-aged woman sat in an armchair, reading a book while occasionally stroking a large, white, fluffy cat curled on her lap. Hoyoung gazed at the cozy sight longingly. He’d only been pet once in his life, when he was young and careless and still getting the hang of his camouflage, and he’d accidentally let himself be seen by a little old lady going home from doing her grocery shopping. Luckily, she’d been half blind and mistook him for a normal kitten, so nothing had come of it, thankfully, but he still found himself reliving that moment over and over when things got particularly difficult. He often wished he could approach humans for more pets whenever he wanted, but he simply couldn’t chance the risk of being seen for what he really was and potentially being captured or killed. 

Hoyoung’s heart sank as he continued to take in the peaceful tableau. The peaceful contentment he faintly felt radiating off the woman in pale blue wisps was barely enough to tantalize his hollow stomach. It certainly wasn’t enough to satiate or even sustain him. And besides, coexisting with a normal cat would be impossible at worst, difficult at be-

A loud hiss, loud enough to be heard even through the glass, startled him out of his thoughts. The cat glowered darkly at him from behind the glass from its seat on the startled woman’s lap, ears pinned back, pupils narrowed to tiny slits. Hoyoung took the hint immediately and scrambled off the windowsill, skittering back to the sidewalk as fast as his shaky, aching legs would carry him. Once there, he glanced briefly back at the warm glow emanating from the apartment window. Then, with a dejected sigh, Hoyoung turned away from his latest dead end and continued down the street.

* * *

He walked and walked and walked, until he could walk no more and finally collapsed under a bus stop bench to wait out the rain. His forelegs and paws throbbed agonizingly, and he licked at them gingerly, trying to soothe the angry red burns and open sores covering them. Almost three weeks, and they still were barely healed, since what little remained of his energy all went to keeping him alive rather than to less important affairs like healing injuries. Of course, walking so much probably wasn’t helping matters, either, but he had no choice. If he stopped moving, starving to death became a certainty rather than merely a high probability. A high probability that only seemed to get higher and higher with every day that passed.

Any place he passed that he could have possibly stayed was already occupied either by another monster that had staked its claim to the inhabitants and wasn’t interested in sharing (his left flank still bore a number of shallow slashes and his hind leg still throbbed whenever he stepped on it wrong), or humans that had no real happiness to speak of. Hoyoung couldn’t say he blamed them, though. The section of the city he’d wandered into was in a truly sorry state. Buildings were crumbling and colorless, except for the graffiti sprayed on every other wall. It seemed like every other streetlamp was burnt out or flickering, and most of the plants in yards, pots, or window boxes was dead and brown. Seedy figures, both human and monster, seemed to lurk around every corner and dart to and fro on the streets. Coming here had clearly been a mistake. One that could very easily cost Hoyoung his life.

The catlike creature curled into a tight ball under the bench as a wave of despair threatened to overwhelm him at the thought of spending what remained of his days homeless, cold, and alone on the streets while he withered away from hunger until there was nothing left of him. As he lay there, shivering, weak, and so very, very hungry, an insidious thought wormed its way into his head: maybe he should just _let_ himself disappear. It would certainly be easier that way, not having to live with the pain, the hunger, and the pathetic mess he’d made of his life up until this point. No one cared. No one would miss him. He should just give up already.

_No._

Hoyoung gritted his teeth, forced his paws underneath him, and stumbled out into the rain again, unmindful of how the cold water soaked his fur in an instant and seemed to seep into his very bones. No, if he was going to die, then he would at least die on his feet, doing his best to live. Death wouldn’t be taking him without a fight.

And then, as he staggered aimlessly down the street, half-delirious with pain and fatigue, he smelled it. Happiness. Affection. Real, genuine positivity. So _much_ of it. Desperation seized him and lent a last burst of strength to his legs, and he half-ran, half limped down the street and turned the corner, searching frantically for the source. His nose quickly found it: a small, ramshackle house, almost a shack, really, partially hidden behind an apartment building and an abandoned clothing store with a “For Lease” sign in the window. The left half of the small yard had been converted into a tidy garden, which already had a few little sprouts despite the cold, disagreeable weather, and a climbing rosebush had grown to cover most of the left front of the house as well. A two-person swing set had been placed on the other side of the yard, large patches of rust showing under the turquoise paint of the frame. A couple of bicycles leaned against that side of the house as well, and an empty clothesline ran down the entire length of that side of the house, one end tied around a lone evergreen tree, a couple yards taller than the house. A rusty chain link fence encircled both the house and the yard. A wooden sign hung on the front gate with the English words “JellyFish Cottage” carved into it, along with a carving of a smiling fish painted orange underneath.

Despite the place’s humble, dilapidated appearance, it stood out like a beacon amidst all the buildings around it due to how much positive energy radiated from it. A place like this was almost sure to be already inhabited by other monsters, but Hoyoung had no other options left to him. He had to take this chance. He knew he wouldn’t last another night alone on the streets.

Too desperate to second guess himself, Hoyoung squeezed in through the bars of the gate, stole across the yard, through the garden, and made his way directly for the nearest window. He could already tell that the window wasn’t open enough for him to squeeze through, and there was barely any sill to speak of. So, using the very last dregs of his magic, Hoyoung _shifted_. His raw, bruised paws turned into equally raw, bruised hands and feet, his spine shortened while his limbs lengthened and his tail retracted into his spine, and in the span of just a few seconds, there was a barefoot, pale-haired, teenage boy crouched under the window, clad only in a ragged pair of sweatpants and an old, grungy T-shirt he’d found behind a thrift store a couple years back.

Carefully reaching up with one hand, Hoyoung cautiously eased the fingers of one hand between the bottom of the window frame and the sill and pushed upwards, praying to any deity within earshot that it was unlocked. Thankfully, it was, and it slid obediently upwards as he pushed, making extra sure to not get any blood on the frame or the sill. Once he had a space of about fifteen centimeters, he gingerly straightened up and peeked over the sill into the room.

It was empty, much to Hoyoung’s immense relief, and looked like a small bedroom belonging to a couple of boys, judging from the two beds resting against the wall to Hoyoung’s left and the far wall, respectively. A couple soccer posters hung on the wall to his left above one bed, and posters of cartoon characters and human celebrities hung on the far wall above the other bed. A small side-table with a lamp on top had been placed between the two beds right underneath a second curtained window. A clothes hamper took up the small space between the end of the far bed and the bedroom door. A small desk piled high with textbooks, notebooks, and one battered laptop was pressed up against the wall to Hoyoung’s right, with a series of cheap shelves hung on the wall above the desk holding even more books, along with a couple action figures. The rest of that wall was taken up by a wooden closet. A dresser with a mirror was to the immediate left of the window Hoyoung was looking through, while to his right, squeezed in between the closet and the dresser with no room to spare, was an old, battered upright piano.

Wasting no more time, Hoyoung placed his hands on the windowsill and pushed himself up, shifting smoothly back into his feline form on his way through the window. He bounded from the dresser to the stained, tiled floor, slunk under the nearest bed, and promptly collapsed, spent. His tense, achy muscles relaxed marginally in relief finally being out of the cold and damp of outside, but they immediately tensed up again when the sound of footsteps approached. The door to the bedroom burst open.

“First!” crowed a teenage boy’s voice as a pair of slippered feet pounded into the room.

“No fair, Minchan-hyung! You have longer legs than me!” Another pair of slippered feet entered the room, considerably smaller than the first. The accompanying voice was definitely younger-sounding, too. “You should have at least given me a head start.”

“You just have to learn to keep up with me, squirt,” the first boy, presumably Minchan, said cheekily, flopping into the bed nearest the door and causing the frame to protest loudly. “You’ll catch up someday.”

“Darn right I will,” retorted the smaller boy, bouncing into the bed Hoyoung cowered under. The monster backed up amidst the dust bunnies and long-lost socks until he felt his back hit the wall behind him. “Coach Minhyuk said I’m the fastest kid on the soccer team, so just you wait, hyung. The reckoning is coming.”

“I’m terrified, Kangminnie,” intoned Minchan.

“Who’s terrified?” said a smooth, mellifluous voice as a third person entered the room.

“Minchan-hyung, after my legs grow long enough that I finally beat his sorry butt in a race.”

“Dream on, kid.”

“I don’t know, Minchan-ah, our Kangmin has been growing like a weed lately. Who knows, he may be taller than you someday.”

“Oh God, Hakyeon-hyung, don’t say things like that, I’m not ready to consider that possibility,” Minchan declared dramatically as someone, presumably Kangmin, blew a raspberry in his direction. 

“Speaking of, can you measure me again tomorrow, Hakyeon-hyung? I think I’ve grown another centimeter in the past week!”

“Somehow I highly doubt that, Kangminnie,” was the fondly amused answer. “But if you want to, then sure, we can check.”

“Yay!” The bedframe shook, and there was a copious amount of rustling as Kangmin burrowed under his covers.

The third pair of feet walked closer, and Hakyeon made an exasperated sound. “Aish, many times do I have to tell you boys? Keep the windows _locked_ at night. Burglars don’t just exist in movies.” The window slid closed, and the lock clicked into place.

“Hey, don’t look at me, I didn’t open it,” Minchan said quickly. “It must have been Kangmin.”

“I closed it!” Kangmin protested. “I’m sure I did.”

“Well, _someone_ obviously didn’t.”

“…Sorry, hyung,” Kangmin said meekly, voice suddenly very small. “Does that mean we don’t get goodnight kisses tonight?”

“Of course not.” Hakyeon sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’ve told you before, sweetheart, nothing you do will ever prevent me from giving you kisses. Just be more careful next time, okay?”

Hoyoung stared in awe at the sheer amount of pure affection filling the room, wafting through the air in thick, peach-colored curls. He immediately began drawing them towards himself and scarfing them down as soon as they came within reach. Relieved, grateful, overwhelmed tears trickled down his cheeks and soaked into his fur as he chewed and swallowed as fast as he could, his stomach singing in delight at finally getting some decent food inside it. 

“You next, Minchan.”

“Hyuuuung,” Minchan whined. “I’m too old for-”

“You’re never too old for kisses, young man.”

“Nooooo!”

Kangmin’s giggles filled the air at the older boy’s melodramatic thrashing and moaning, and iridescent magenta bubbles soon joined the smooth, peachy curls floating through the air. Hoyoung gobbled the amusement down, too, savoring its light, effervescent taste.

“There now,” Hakyeon said, sounding very smug. “Resistance is futile, Minchan.”

“I hate _both_ of you. I’m moving to Australia.”

“Does this mean I finally get a room all to myself?” Kangmin piped up hopefully.

“Alright, boys, settle down, settle down,” Hakyeon laughed before Minchan could verbalize a proper retort, sending more magenta bubbles drifting lazily through the air. Hoyoung eyed them longingly, but his shrunken stomach couldn’t hold a single morsel of emotion more. “Now, there’s an extra shift available at the warehouse tomorrow, so I won’t see you in the morning, but Hana’s promised to make egg fried rice for everyone else as a special treat.”

“But breakfasts aren’t the same without you, hyung!” Hoyoung could almost hear Kangmin’s pout.

“I know, kiddo, and I’m sorry, but bills don’t pay themselves. Mina needs a new jacket, too, and _you_ need new soccer cleats.”

“I can still wear them for at least another month, hyung,” Kangmin protested. “If the sole comes off again, I’ll just ask Sanghyuk-hyung to glue it like he did last time. No big deal. Get noona a really nice coat so that the kids at school can’t tease her anymore instead.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Kangminnie, but wearing worn out shoes isn’t good for your feet, especially at the rate you’re growing. We’ll make it work somehow, just like we always do.” Hoyoung watched Hakyeon’s own feet walk to the door and pause for a moment as he turned out the lights. “Goodnight, boys.”

“Good night, hyung,” they chorused.

Silence fell in the small room after that, broken only by the humans’ soft breaths, the sounds of the wind and rain from outside, and the quiet, contented purrs that Hoyoung was unable to contain completely. The monster had slumped onto his side, curled up in a loose ball as he drowsily savored the sensation of having a full stomach for the first time in weeks. Maybe this would work out after all. As he began to drift off, still purring quietly, Kangmin spoke up in a loud whisper.

“Hyung! Minchan-hyung!”

“Hng?”

“I think there’s a monster under my bed! I can hear it growling.” Hoyoung suddenly felt very much awake.

“For the last time, Kangmin, there’s no such thing as monsters. It’s probably just the gutters outside. Besides, even if it was a monster, it definitely wouldn’t be there to eat _you_. You’re way too scrawny. It’ll eat me instead, and by that time it’ll be too full to eat you, so either way, you don’t have to worry.”

“…Thanks? I think?”

“No problem. Now _go to sleep_.” 

Hoyoung stifled a groan and hid his face under his paws in mortification, internally chastising himself for his sloppiness. He couldn’t afford to lose yet another potential home because of carelessness. So, despite his fatigue, he stifled his purrs, quashed his exhaustion, and sat still and silent as a stone until he was sure both boys had fallen deeply asleep. Just as he was again about to fall asleep himself, a faint sound of whispered voices caught his attention. Had someone entered the room when he he’d almost drifted off earlier? It didn’t sound like either Minchan or Kangmin. So what-?

“We know you’re here, bedbug,” came an unfamiliar masculine voice, spoken at normal volume. Hoyoung’s fur bristled reflexively, and he shuffled back until his spine was pressed into the corner, heart hammering against his ribs. “So come out and introduce yourself properly instead of skulking around like a criminal on our territory. Don’t make me have to drag you out from under there.”

Hoyoung’s mind raced as he frantically weighed his options and quickly came to the conclusion that he had none. Sick with dread and exhaustion, he crept out from under the bed, belly almost scraping the ground and ears pinned flat against his skull. He was simply too weak and hurt to challenge a fellow monster for their territory, and certainly in no shape to defend himself if the confrontation turned belligerent. He was completely at their mercy, and he knew it.

As Hoyoung emerged, movement from the piano caught his eye. A small, insect-like creature _(a bee?)_ buzzed from the top of the piano to perch on the stool, and Hoyoung knew with absolute certainty it was watching his every move. As the two regarded each other, the voice spoke again. “Good, you have some sense, then. Now.” Suddenly, in place of the bee, a male, humanoid figure sat on the stool, one leg crossed over the other. Despite his new, humanlike size and appearance, however, he’d kept some attributes from his previous form, such as his black, armored, chitin-like skin, which was covered with intricate, gilded stripes reminiscent of a tiger’s; a segmented body, joints, and antennae; a yellow, furry ruff around his neck that matched the tousled mop on his head; and a pair of delicate, iridescent wings on his back. His gaze flicked to Hoyoung’s forked tail, and his golden compound eyes narrowed slightly. “Care to tell me what you’re doing here uninvited and unannounced, nekomata?”

“I’m s-sorry, s-sir,” Hoyoung stammered, voice hoarse and raspy with pain and disuse. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I was just… s-so hungry…”

“And you thought sneaking in like a common thief was the way to ingratiate yourself to those of us already living here?”

Before Hoyoung could formulate a response, a new voice sounded from inside the closet. “Oh, cut it out with the bad cop act, Dongheon.” The bee monster rolled his eyes as Hoyoung jumped at least three centimeters. “Can’t you see the poor guy’s been through the wringer? I can count his ribs! And, may I remind you, he’s not the only one here who relies on humans for food.” A brown-furred, three-fingered hand sporting wickedly sharp claws curled around the closet door and pushed it open. A monster that vaguely resembled a werewolf emerged, seeming almost too large for the small space he’d stepped out of. A long, thin, tufted tail swished behind him as he smiled widely at Hoyoung, revealing a large maw crammed with sharp, crooked teeth. Hoyoung recognized him as a baku instantly, even though he’d only ever seen them from a distance before. A juvenile one, judging from his size.

The dream-eater knelt down and offered a hand human-fashion to a wide-eyed Hoyoung. “Hi, I’m Yeonho. The grumpy piano bee over there is Dongheon. Don’t worry, he’s actually quite friendly, he just gets protective over the kids sometimes, it’s nothing personal. And don’t worry about waking them up, either, they’re heavy sleepers and I’m making sure no one will hear us anyway. So, what’s your name, stranger?”

“Hoyoung,” Hoyoung replied numbly, gingerly putting a paw in Yeonho’s much larger one. That was how humans did it, right?

Yeonho’s large, green eyes grew larger as he took in the sores, scabs, and burns covering Hoyoung’s paw. “Dude, what did you do, shove this in a meat grinder?”

Shame gripped Hoyoung, and he snatched his paw away, curling his tail around his feet to hide them from view. “N-no, my old home… um… burned down.”

“What, with you inside it?” Yeonho looked horrified.

Hoyoung sighed. “Not… exactly. I used to live in an ice cream stall near a public park. Business is slow during winter months, but Hyeyeon – that is, the vendor – made enough to get by once she started selling waffles, too, so I never outright starved. I was visiting some of my friends one night – the small herd of kirin that lived in the nearby park – and when I got back, the stall was on fire.” Hoyoung squeezed his eyes shut, trying to only remember the facts of that awful night, and not the horrible emotions that went along with them, the pain, the terror, the overwhelming guilt. “I don’t know what caused it; arson, faulty wiring, the old waffle maker that Hyeyeon got at a thrift store. Whatever the case, by the time I got back, the fire was already too far along for me to stop it, even though I did everything I could. But… with her stall gone, Hyeyeon had to get another job elsewhere. My friends offered to let me stay with them, but I can’t exactly live on leaves and grass like they can. So I’ve been spending the last couple of weeks trying to find somewhere to live with a steady source of food. I was run off every place I found, though. No one seems to be interested in sharing the few humans who’ve managed to stay happy this time of year.”

Hoyoung threw what remained of his pride to the wind and dropped into a deep bow before the other two monsters. “I know I’m just another lowly emotion-eater and you have no reason to trust me, especially not right now, but please, please, don’t throw me out! I promise I’ll stay out of your way, I won’t cause any further trouble for you or your humans, I just need a place to stay and enough food to keep me alive.” Tears pricked at his eyes again as his voice broke. “Please. I have nowhere else to go. I can’t… I won’t last another night on the streets.”

Having said all he could, Hoyoung fell silent. All he could do now was wait for an answer, nauseous with nerves and anticipation, unable to contain his trembling, having reached the last remnants of his endurance. When large hands closed around his torso, he fully expected to be thrown out the window, or maybe a beating, or even for them to put him out of his misery, and as he knew he had no chance of fighting back, he simply went limp, accepting his fate with a tiny sob.

Instead of any of those things, however, he found himself hugged gently to a solid, furry chest. “Of course you can stay with us!” Yeonho proclaimed. “Right, Dongheon? Right?”

Dongheon’s eyes softened considerably. “I suppose it would be extremely cruel to turn him out in the middle of the night after all he’s been through, wouldn’t you say?”

“Really?” Hoyoung whispered, hardly able to believe his ears. “Y-you mean it? I can stay?”

“For tonight, yes,” Dongheon replied, finally cracking a smile. “Of course, whether you can stay for _good_ isn’t up to me. You’ll need to speak with Taekwoon tomorrow.”

“Taekwoon is the oldest monster living here,” Yeonho explained, gently placing Hoyoung back on the floor right beside Kangmin’s bed. “Or, at least we think he is. He’s been with the humans the longest, anyway, so he has final say over what goes on here. Between you and me, I don’t think you have anything to worry about, though.” He winked and grinned, showing off his sharp, jumbled smile again. “He’s a big ol’ softie.”

Dongheon snorted. “He’d have to be, to let _you_ live here.”

“For the sake of our guest, I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear that,” Yeonho said with dignity.

“Thank you both,” Hoyoung said, dropping into a full bow again, eyes filling with tears. “Just… _thank you_.”

“Don’t mention it,” Yeonho said, scratching the back of his neck bashfully. “What kind of monsters would we be if we tossed you back out in your condition?”

“Get some sleep, bedbug,” Dongheon added, shrinking back into his insect form on the piano stool. “You look about dead on your feet. Tomorrow Yeonho will take you to see Taekwoon, and if he says you can stay, then I have no objections as long as you don’t cause any trouble.”  
  


Hoyoung nodded readily. Even one night of uninterrupted sleep in a warm environment was more than he could have hoped for. With one last grateful look over his shoulder, he limped back under the bed and curled up at the furthest corner on top of an old, dusty, forgotten sweater, asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.

* * *

Hoyoung gradually regained consciousness, feeling more rested than he had in a long, long while. He stretched luxuriously and gave a great yawn, his long, raspy tongue sticking out comically even after he closed his mouth. Any moment now, he expected to feel the familiar pangs of hunger to emanate from his stomach… but to his surprise, he wasn’t hungry at all. His golden eyes shot open as the events from the night before flooded his mind. He was still under Kangmin’s bed, and the bedroom was considerably brighter than it had been previously. Just how long had he slept? More importantly, what was to become of him now?

Anxiety tied his stomach into painful knots as he ran over all the different possibilities in his head, and for a brief moment, he considered just never coming out from under the bed again. As soon as the thought ran through is head, though, he discarded it, disgusted with himself for cowering and hiding like a newborn kitten. This wasn’t his home, as much as he desperately wanted it to be, and he couldn’t just barge in and expect to be accepted right off the bat, especially if there were creatures already living here who needed these resources as much as he did. Deciding he might as well get this over with, Hoyoung stood, wincing at the familiar pain from his weak, overworked muscles and untreated injuries. However, upon closer inspection, his paws and other injuries had finally managed to scab over some during the night, which relieved him immensely. Stoically enduring the stabbing pain from his paws, he crept out from under the bed into the empty room, lit only by the sunshine filtering in from the partially-open window.

“Um… hello?” he called tentatively. “Yeonho? Dongheon?”

“Ah, you’re finally awake,” Dongheon observed. The bee monster zipped through the open window, landed on the piano stool, and shifted back to his humanoid form. “We thought it best to let you get fully rested before taking you to see Taekwoon.”

“So this is the home intruder, huh?” came a new voice from the direction of the window. A light breeze blew through the room, carrying with it a number of rose petals and leaves. These swirled together and coalesced into the seated form of a teenage boy with wooden skin covered in thorny branches, and hair made out of dark green leaves, out of which a crown of white roses grew. He looked Hoyoung up and down curiously. “Hm, you don’t look like much. You have a light foot, though, I’ll give you that. Didn’t even wake me up last night. Not many have managed to accomplish that. I’m Yongseung, by the way.” He waved fingers that looked like gnarled roots, smiling brightly.

“Hoyoung,” the nekomata returned, bowing politely. “Is the garden outside yours, then?” A horrible thought occurred to him. “Oh no! I didn’t damage any of your plants last night, did I?”

“No, they’ll all fine,” Yongseung assured him. “Trust me, if you _had_ damaged one of them, I definitely would have known about it. And yes, it’s mine. Well, _technically_ , it’s the humans’, but it was mine first, so it’s really a joint operation. The previous tenant planted me by the porch when I was just a seedling, you see. When she left, her garden went to seed, but when this lot moved in, they decided to replant it to augment their food supplies. I make sure nothing happens to it.”

“He kept growing over the window and across the porch before that,” Dongheon murmured to Hoyoung, looking both amused and fond. “Sulky-like.”

“Hey! I was not _sulking_ , I was _depressed_ ,” Yongseung protested, crossing his arms. “ _You_ try having everything you ever knew either desert you or die despite your best efforts to stop it.”

“It must have been really lonely,” Hoyoung said sympathetically, coming closer to place a paw on his foot. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“See, he gets it,” Yongseung said, pointing down at Hoyoung emphatically while giving him a grateful look. A large beetle was dislodged from his hand with the motion and landed on its back on the surface of the dresser, flailing its legs helplessly.

“A bug!” Dongheon shrieked, leaping off his piano stool and pointing at the insect shakily. “Kill it! Kill it!”

“Oh please.” Yongseung rolled his eyes, gently scooping up the beetle and tossing it out the window, where it took flight and buzzed away. “You _really_ need to get over that phobia of yours, Dongheon. It’s embarrassing. You’re like a hydrophobic hippocamp.”

“I can’t help it,” Dongheon replied sulkily, retaking his seat. “I’m not _actually_ a bug. They are.”

“And that makes logical sense how?”

“Phobias don’t _have_ to be logical, okay?”

“Um,” Hoyoung cut in, lifting a paw hesitantly. “You said something about going to see someone named Taekwoon?”

“Oh, yeah.” Dongheon rapped sharply on the closet door. “Yeonho! The bedbug’s awake. Get your butt out here.” At Hoyoung’s quizzical look, he explained. “He sleeps during the day, normally. Comes out at night to feed, him and Soyee.”

“Soyee?”

“Our other baku. She lives in the girls’ closet. If Taekwoon says you can stay, you’ll probably meet her at some point.”

“-wake! ’m awake!” The closet door opened and Yeonho stumbled out, yawning loudly. Hoyoung tried not to feel too intimidated, but _wow_ , those were a _lot_ of teeth. Yeonho opened his eyes and immediately closed them again, squinting hatefully at the sunlight streaming through the window. “Ugh. _Daytime_.” He looked less disgruntled as he caught sight of Yongseung sitting on the dresser. “Oh, hi, Yongseung! You meet our guest?”

The rose drus inclined his head. “I did. He gets my vote of confidence, for what it’s worth.”

“See, Hoyoung? You got nothing to worry about. Everyone likes you already,” Yeonho beamed down at him, and a pleased glow spread through Hoyoung from his nose to the tips of his tails. “Alright, let’s go see Taekwoon.”

“Have fun,” Dongheon waved them off. “Everyone’s at work or school right now, so you shouldn’t have any interruptions.”

“You’re not coming?” Hoyoung asked.

“Nope. Can’t. Pianos aren’t exactly known for their grace and poise, and this form here can’t go more than about fifteen feet away from my physical body.”

“You’re… a piano?”

“Yup. This,” Dongheon gestured to himself, “is a projection. My soul made manifest, as it were.” 

“Oh.” Hoyoung blinked as he absorbed this information. “But then, if that’s a projection, can’t you change it, if you don’t like insects?”

“That’s what I keep saying!” Yeongsung interjected.

“And as _I_ keep saying, it’s not that simple,” Dongheon replied, shooting Yongseung an exasperated look. “A colony of bees had made a hive inside me when I became self-aware, so that’s just the form my manifestation takes. Didn’t have much choice in the matter. So yes, I’m staying right here, thank you very much.”

“Come on, Hoyoung.” Yeonho chivvied him out the bedroom door. “The sooner Taekwoon says you can stay, the sooner you can meet everyone else.”

Outside, there was a door identical to the one they’d just come out of right across from them, except this one was covered in bright, painted flowers. To their left was a smaller, open door that led to a bathroom. To their right, the house opened up into the main living area, with a mismatched assortment of a ratty couch, a worn, plush chair, and a beanbag chair arranged on an old rug in front of a small TV and archaic gaming system. A single bookshelf rested in the corner next to the TV, where a modest number of books, movies, games, and assorted knickknacks had been placed. On the opposite side of the living room was the front door and genkan area, where all the shoes were kept and an assorted number of umbrellas and coat hooks lined the walls. On the far side of the house there was what looked like a pantry or another bedroom, plus a kitchen/dining area.

“Taekwoon lives in Hakyeon and Sanghyuk’s room,” Yeonho said, pointing to the third, tiny room and leading the way there. When they were halfway across the living room, Hoyoung’s sharp ears picked up a quiet, creaking sound. A cursory search for the noise revealed it to be the door to the utility closet in the kitchen, which was cracked open slightly. As he watched, a small, twitchy, luminous nose nudged the door even further open, and a shining, silvery-white rabbit stepped out from the darkness inside. It stood up on its hind legs and regarded Hoyoung for a long moment, nose still twitching madly.

“A moon rabbit?” Hoyoung asked, glancing at Yeonho in surprise. “You have a moon rabbit? _Here_?”

“Hakyeon’s spaghetti is just that good, apparently.” Yeonho shrugged his furry shoulders before waving welcomingly at the rabbit. “Hongbin, this is-”

“Filthy!” the moon rabbit exclaimed in a voice that seemed far too deep for such a small body. He charged at the two monsters and scurried in frantic circles around a thoroughly bemused and slightly terrified Hoyoung, looking increasingly frazzled. “Wind and stars, you’re _filthy_! What did you do, roll in every single mud puddle from here to Incheon?” He gave a dismayed gasp as he saw the dirt smudges Hoyoung had left behind him on the floor. He dashed back into the closet and emerged with a rag clutched in his paws. “Nope!” He scrubbed at the nearest smudge with his rag until he’d mopped up every speck of dirt. “Nope!” He moved on to the next. “Nope!” He grabbed a leaf that had dislodged from Hoyoung’s fur and popped it viciously into his mouth. “ _Nope!_ ”

Hoyoung shrunk in on himself as he watched the rabbit clean up his mess, both ashamed and embarrassed. He hadn’t had the opportunity to think or care about his appearance in quite a long while, but he knew he must look a sight. And now he’d gone and gotten his potential new home all dirty and potentially mortally offended one of his new housemates. The day was already off to a fantastic start.

“I’m taking him to see Taekwoon, Hongbin,” Yeonho explained patiently. “He might be staying here, so we need to-”

“Not like _that_ , he’s not!” Hongbin stopped his frantic bout of cleaning to address Hoyoung directly. “Hey, nekomata, can you shift?”

He blinked, taking stock of his magic reserves, which had been slightly replenished by his meal the night before. “Er… I think so?”

“If you can, do it. Unless you’d rather take a bath in that form.”

“A bath?” Hoyoung parroted, confused.

“Do I have an echo? And yes, I’m not letting you track any more dirt all over my clean floors.”

“Wait, you mean like a _human_ bath?” Hoyoung asked, sudden panic gripping him. “Like, with _water_?” 

Hongbin rolled his white, glowing eyes. “Not the fastest on the uptake, are you? _Yes_ , with water! Now off to the bathroom with you, march, go.” The moon rabbit flapped his little paws at him before going back to scrubbing at the floor with his rag.

“Don’t worry, Hoyoung,” Yeonho said, nudging his cold nose against Hoyoung’s head comfortingly. “It’s not that bad, especially if you’re in human form. I can help you, if you want.”

“Would you?” Hoyoung asked gratefully.

“Ahem!” Hongbin was tapping his hind leg on the floor very fast, looking annoyed. “Sometime today, if you please?”

Hoyoung took a deep breath, reached for his inner magic, and shifted. He was panting by the time the change was complete. His magic apparently wasn’t as replenished as he thought. As he shakily stood from his crouched position on the floor to his full human height, he realized he was at eye level with Yeonho, who had seemed so huge and intimidating before. Well, he still seemed intimidating, but he wasn’t as big anymore. That was one thing Hoyoung did appreciate about his human form, despite how unwieldy he found walking on two legs to be.

“Wow, Hoyoung! You look catlike even as a human!” Yeonho said, impressed. Then he frowned, taking in the rest of Hoyoung’s bedraggled, battered appearance. “I’m no expert, but humans… aren’t supposed to be that skinny, are they?”

“No, they most certainly are not,” Hongbin proclaimed, coming closer to prod lightly at Hoyoung’s bruised, scraped, dirty foot. The moon rabbit looked even smaller from this height; he could fit in the palms of both Hoyoung’s hands easily. He spread out his rag on the floor and gestured to it emphatically. “Wipe your feet on this first.” Hoyoung obeyed without protest, heart sinking like a stone as Yeonho accompanied him back to the bathroom.

“Do I have to?” he murmured, glancing pleadingly at Yeonho.

“Leave your clothes outside the door!” Hongbin called after them. “I’ll see what I can do about getting them clean and repaired.”

“Will do!” Yeonho replied, before lowering his voice to reply to Hoyoung. “’Fraid so, friend. When it comes to the state of the main house, whatever Hongbin says goes. It’s best to just humor him. But like I said, don’t worry, I’ll explain everything as best I can, and besides, you only have to stay in there long enough to get clean.”

“That’s already too long,” Hoyoung muttered rebelliously, but he bit the bullet and followed Yeonho into the bathroom anyway. If dousing himself in unholy amounts of water and soap would potentially positively influence these monsters’ decision to let him stay, then that’s what he would do. That didn’t mean he had to _like_ it, though.

* * *

“Ah, there we go, much better!” Hongbin said, clapping his paws in satisfaction as the two young monsters emerged from the bathroom about thirty minutes later, Hoyoung looking decidedly more damp than he had when he went in. “How do you feel, kit?”

“Better,” Hoyoung said truthfully, if reluctantly. He’d never realized before what a difference clean clothes and a complete absence of dirt could make to his human form’s self-image. He actually felt… relatively normal for once, even though the process to get there had been less than pleasant. “But I never want to do that again.”

“If you never get that dirty again, you won’t have to,” Hongbin replied sweetly, motioning the two over to where he sat atop the kitchen table, surrounded by various paraphernalia. “Now come here, kit, I have one last thing for you.” He picked up the long, stone object he’d set down when Yeonho and Hoyoung came out of the bathroom and pounded it back into the identical stone bowl before him a few more times. “There, that should do it.”

“What have you got there, Hongbin?” Yeonho asked curiously as they approached.

“A poultice for our guest,” Hongbin replied, tipping the stone bowl forward slightly to display the greenish paste inside. Little bits of assorted leaves and flower petals were heaped up in neat little piles surrounding him, along with a small pitcher of steaming water and container of what looked like flour. “I pounded some of my magic into it, too. My specialty is cleaning, not medicine, but I like to think I still know a thing or two about it.”

“Medicine? For me?” Hoyoung said, both astonished and touched.

“But of course. Those burns look horrible, not to mention painful. Let me see them,” he beckoned for Hoyoung to give him his hands. Hoyoung tentatively sat at one of the chairs and rested his hands and forearms on the table so Hongbin could examine them more closely. Yeonho hovered over his shoulder, watching the proceedings with interest.

Hongbin hissed as he got a closer look at Hoyoung’s wounds. They looked even worse now that all the dirt and filth caked on top of them had been washed away. Some of the scabs had torn open during Hoyoung’s attempts to bathe himself and were bleeding sluggishly, while the burns were covered with a thin sheen of ooze. Hoyoung grimaced as he looked at them. Honestly, they looked worse when he was human. At least his nekomata form had fur that could hide the worst of his injuries.

After prodding at a few particularly nasty sores, Hongbin finally spoke up. “I know our kind are hardier than humans when it comes to illness, but I still have no idea how these haven’t gotten horribly infected by now.”

“I lick them a lot when I stop to rest,” he mumbled, squirming slightly under the moon rabbit’s close scrutiny.

Hongbin nosed gently at the burns winding their way up Hoyoung’s forearms. “When did you get these?”

“Um… two or three weeks ago now, I think?”

“And they’re still only this far along in the healing process?” Hongbin looked up at him in shock, pinning his ears back.

“Food’s been… in short supply lately.” Hoyoung shrugged uncomfortably, his T-shirt slipping off his bony shoulder with the motion.

“You poor thing,” Hongbin murmured, almost too quietly to hear. He patted Hoyoung’s hand with surprising gentleness given his previous brusque manner and stepped away, going back to the bowl full of medicine and dipping his paw inside. “Shift, please. This will be more effective if you’re in the form you normally take.”

Hoyoung obeyed, crawling atop the table and transforming back into his original form. The action took even more out of him, and he knew he wouldn’t be transforming again for at least a day, possibly more. It was good to have fur and four legs again, though, even if his fur was still slightly damp. Hongbin got right down to business, thoroughly smearing the poultice all over Hoyoung’s injuries and binding the ones on his legs up with strips of a clean rag so that the white socks on them were completely covered by the time he was through. Hoyoung was unable to stifle a heavy sigh as the warm paste came into contact with the open wounds and burns, tears springing to his eyes out of sheer relief. When Hongbin was finished and gathering up his leftover supplies, he plucked up his courage and nuzzled the small rabbit.

“Thank you,” he whispered in a choked voice. “For everything.”

“Yeah, sure, no problem, kit,” Hongbin replied, belaying his gruff tone by actually returning the nuzzle. “Don’t just thank me, though. I borrowed the mortar and pestle from our kitchen guardian, Haebin.” He gestured to the small, open oven (hadn’t it been closed earlier…?) beside the stove, where a large, brick-red rat lounged on one of the racks, waving cheerily at Hoyoung as he spotted her

“Hi!” she chirped, her Busan dialect audible even in that one word. “And no need to thank me. Happy to help!”

“And Xiening here helped me with some of the herbs.” Hongbin pointed at the large, intricate, porcelain vase sitting in the center of the table, filled with a pretty bouquet of fresh flowers. As Hoyoung looked, a small face emerged from the collection of blooms, and a miniature, feminine figure slipped out of the vase, stepping daintily onto the table. Her face and skin were dark green, and her large eyes had black sclera and pupilless, bright orange irises. Her dress and long hair seemed to be made out of flower petals that started out as a dark, reddish orange color at the center, and gradually lightened until the tips, which were the same shade as her eyes.

“Pretty diamond cat,” she said in heavily accented Korean, smiling widely and tucking a small, red flower behind his ear. She was so tiny that even when he was lying down, he was still at eye level with her. “Feel better now, yes?”

“Um… yes,” he replied, slightly flustered. “Thank you very much.”

She beamed and patted the black, diamond-shaped splotch on his left cheek. “Good! More pain, come see me. I help.”

He nodded, smiling shyly. “I will if I can. Thank you again.” She simply smiled back, patted him again, and skipped back to her vase, climbing back inside and disappearing among the greenery.

“You do look a lot better now,” Yeonho observed, reaching out a claw to poke at Hoyoung’s black-tipped ear. “I didn’t even know what color you actually were before this. Tri-colored cats are supposed to be lucky, you know.”

“So I’ve been told,” Hoyoung said wryly, getting to his feet laboriously. Another spike of pain caused him to shake his paw violently and helplessly lick at the bandage covering it, before he realized what he was doing and sheepishly lowered it back to the table.

“Don’t overdo it now,” Hongbin warned. “You’re going to need a lot of rest before you’re fit to be gallivanting around. If Taekwoon says you can stay, come back sometime in the next couple days, and I’ll apply some more of the poultice.”

“Duly noted, thanks, Hongbin!” Yeonho replied before Hoyoung could open his mouth. The baku scooped up Hoyoung and gently deposited him on the floor before the nekomata even realized what was happening.

“What he said!” he called up.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome and all that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go tidy the bathroom before the humans get back.”

“Good point!” Yeonho herded Hoyoung over to the bedroom door nearest the kitchen. He pushed open the door and closed it behind them once both had entered. Hoyoung nervously sat on the floor and wrapped his tail around his bandaged paws, glancing quickly around the room, which was barely large enough for one person to walk abreast down the center amidst all the furniture. Two clearly very different people lived there, and the room had been divided according to their interests. The right side of the room was neat but homey, with a small, tidy bookshelf set up along one wall, a cozy throw rug spread out beside the made bed, and a pair of well-worn ice skates hung up in a place of honor beside the small dresser, which had a number of trophies and medals displayed on it along with various makeup and skin products. Candles and potted succulents and cacti decorated the side table beside the bed as well.

The other side of the room, while not a complete mess, exactly, was significantly more chaotic. The bed had been hastily made, and the desk at the foot of it was covered in a riot of papers, folders, and textbooks, along with another old laptop computer. A guitar rested on a stand on the other side of the desk. A shelf hung on the wall held a number of toys and action figures, and posters of cartoon characters from various forms of human media hung on the wall. To the two monsters’ direct left was a portable, cloth closet, not part of the house like the one in Minchan and Kangmin’s room. On the far wall between the two sides of the room was a window, with gold and dark blue flowers filling the window box on the other side.

Clearing his throat, Yeonho folded his hands behind his back and said respectfully, “Hey, Taekwoon? Could you come out for a minute, please? There’s someone new I want you to meet!”

For a few moments, nothing happened. Then, a dark form emerged from under the bed on the left, moving gracefully and soundlessly across the floor. Yeonho continued on blithely, “Taekwoon, this is Hoyoung! He’s looking for a place to stay after his last one burned down, and he’s very nice! He slept under Kangmin’s bed last night, and he’s already hit it off with me, Dongheon, and Yeongsung, so he can stay in there with us if you say it’s okay. Oh, and he’s an emotion-eater, just like you and Nayoung! What are the odds, right?”

Another emotion-eat-? Hoyoung’s heart skipped multiple beats as he looked back at the approaching monster in terror. A nekomata? Here?! Now that he was looking for it, yes, there was the telltale forked tail, the slitted, catlike, green eyes. Oh, Hoyoung was screwed, he was so screwed, he was dead, dead dead _dead_ -

“Hoyoung?” Yeonho’s concerned voice cut through the panic fogging Hoyoung’s mind, snapping him out of his stupor. He immediately dropped into a submissive position before the much larger nekomata, his tail and belly pressed flat against the tile, large ears laid back against his skull. He trembled, cowering on the floor, as the other nekomata came closer and closer. He didn’t dare to even look at him for fear of possible retaliation. If he acted as polite and unimposing as possible, maybe there was a slim chance he’d make it out of this in one piece.

“Look at me, kitten.” Whatever Hoyoung had expected the new monster’s voice to sound like… it wasn’t this. The soft, calm, strangely gentle voice gave Hoyoung just enough courage to do as he was told and lift his eyes. Once he did, he really wished he hadn’t; Taekwoon sat a few paces away, a fully-grown member of their species, easily twice Hoyoung’s size, and he knew with cold certainty he would stand no chance against such an opponent, especially not in his condition. The slashes on his flank throbbed with a fresh wave of pain at the thought. However, Taekwoon made no move to attack, and instead simply asked, “How old are you?”

“This will be my sixth summer, sir,” Hoyoung replied, as respectfully as he possibly could.

Taekwoon flicked his tail. “How many places have you stayed before coming here?”

“Just two, sir. The first home I found after leaving my parents was a kitchen cupboard in an apartment belonging to two exchange students from New Zealand for about a year, before they moved back to their own country. I can speak English fluently because of my time with them, though. They were good hosts; I honestly thought about following them back to their home, but idea of flying on a human airplane… well, I didn’t like it, so I ultimately decided to stay. And, because I knew that they were leaving, I had time to find another place to live before they did, which was the ice cream stall. I stayed there until it burned down a couple weeks ago, as Yeonho said.”

“And why did you leave your parents?”

“They live in the ceiling above the maternity ward in a hospital, sir. When my brother, sisters, and I were two summers old, there simply wasn’t enough food to go around to sustain all six of us anymore in addition to our parents, so they said we were old enough to all go out and find homes for ourselves.”

  
“Were you not able to go back to them when you fell on hard times?”

“No, sir. For one thing, I’m not quite sure how far away they live, or even in what city; I hitched a ride on a supply truck from the hospital, fell asleep, and got out once it stopped, which was here in this city. For another, even if I could find them again, they surely have had another litter by now, and I’d just be taking food out of the kittens’ mouths.”

Taekwoon studied him for a long moment, seeming to stare into his very soul. He then stood up and walked the few paces over to where Hoyoung still cowered on the floor. This was it then. He squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his head to the ground, tears pricking his eyelids. “Please,” he begged, too terrified to care about how his voice cracked embarrassingly on the word, “please, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude on your territory, sir, I didn’t know another nekomata lived here, I’ll leave, I will, just please, don’t kill me, _please_ -”

A gentle nuzzle to his cheek cut off his desperate flow of words. “Oh, kitten,” Taekwoon said sorrowfully. “Is that really how you expect me to treat you? For me to end your life without reason or recourse just because you stepped foot in my humans’ house?”

“Isn’t that our way?” Hoyoung said, so confused that he actually dared to open his eyes. “I’ve barely escaped with my life every time I’ve come across another of our kind since leaving my parents.”

Taekwoon’s thunderous expression made Hoyoung moan low in his throat, and he squeezed his eyes shut again, curling in on himself slightly. “That may be the way of some of us,” the older nekomata said quietly. Hoyoung felt him step even closer, and he trembled even more violently, bracing himself for the pain he knew would surely come. “But it’s not mine.” With that, Taekwoon curled himself around Hoyoung’s smaller body, enveloping him in a feline hug. Velvety, comforting purrs filled the room as Taekwoon licked Hoyoung’s cheeks and forehead, the way his mother had used to.

“Hoyoung?" Yeonho spoke up again, still sounding immensely concerned. “Why are you crying?”

“Are you alright?” Taekwoon inquired, nuzzling his cheek consolingly. This only made Hoyoung cry harder.

“Wh-why?” he sobbed, not knowing what to think anymore. “Why are y-you all b-being… so _nice_ to me? I d-don’t deserve it, I’ve been nothing but a b-bother, coming in and disrupting y-your lives like this. Wh-what’s the catch? There has to be a c-catch, right?”

“No catch, kitten,” Taekwoon said firmly, as Yeonho whimpered quietly in the background. “Our humans give us more than enough food to sustain us already. One more mouth to feed won’t make much of a difference. Sure, they have hard times, and when they do, so do we, but we’ll get through it like we always have. You can stay here for as long as you wish.”

Hoyoung simply did not have the words to express the rush of relief and gratitude that filled him at those words. So he simply buried his face in Taekwoon’s fur and let the older emotion-eater hold him like he was a tiny kitten again as he cried out the pain, uncertainty, terror, and loneliness that had accumulated inside him over the past few weeks. Once he’d calmed down, he sat back and tried to rub the tears from his face, embarrassed at his unseemly display of emotion. Taekwoon simply nudged his bandaged paws aside and licked away his tears, still purring gently. Hoyoung supposed he should feel annoyed at the babying (he was almost a full-grown tom who had been independent for almost four years, after all!), but it felt so very nice to be coddled for once that he simply couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Thank you, sir,” he said, throwing caution to the wind and rubbing up against Taekwoon, letting out a light, raspy purr of his own and hoping Taekwoon would understand everything he couldn’t express in words.

“Never mind the sir,” Taekwoon said softly, nuzzling him back. “You can call me hyung, if you want.”

Hoyoung blinked in surprise and then stared at him incredulously. The human obsession with honorifics was rarely used among monster society as a whole, given the drastically disparate life cycles and maturation periods that occurred within different species. It simply didn’t make sense to call someone “hyung” when they were still barely more than a child of their own species, but were technically ten years older than a fully-grown adult member of another. “Really?”

Now it was Taekwoon’s turn to look embarrassed. “I know I may have lived among humans for too long, but since I’m going to be responsible for you, now…” He shuffled one paw on the ground shyly “If it makes you feel any better, Nayoung calls me oppa, so…”

Hoyoung stared. “You… _another_ nekomata lives here? Three? Under the same roof? Are you actually siblings?”

Taekwoon chuckled lightly. “No, no, we’re not. She accompanied Mina and Minchan here when Hakyeon brought the family together, and I didn’t have the heart to turn her away.” At Hoyoung’s uncomprehending stare, Teakwoon nudged him to his feet. “Here, I’ll explain while we eat. It’s almost time for the humans to start arriving home, and that’s our main feeding period of the day. Nayoung will correct me if I get anything wrong, I’m sure.”

“So you guys are going to stay to eat?” Yeonho asked, holding up a claw. “Because if that’s the case-” A large yawn interrupted his sentence, “-can I get back to bed?”

“Yes, thank you, Yeonho,” Hoyoung said, limping over to the baku and brushing up against his leg gratefully. “You’ve done so much already. Please, go get some sleep.”  
  


“No problem, happy to help,” Yeonho grinned tiredly, giving a thumbs up, opening up the bedroom door, and wandering back across the small house to Kangmin and Minchan’s bedroom, nearly tripping over his own two feet on the way.

“He’s a good kitten,” Taekwoon said fondly, watching the baku go. “A bit overenthusiastic sometimes, but good.” He looked down at Hoyoung and smiled. “Now, let’s go get in position. Nayoung should be joining us any minute now.”

“Okay… hyung.” It didn’t feel nearly as awkward to say it as Hoyoung thought he would, and the delighted look it brought to Taekwoon’s face was worth it. As he limped out behind Taekwoon into the living room, another nekomata, a pretty little tuxedo with a black starburst on her chest, bounded out of the room opposite the boys’.

“Oh!” she said, stopping short in surprise when she saw Hoyoung. Her eyes, a slightly lighter shade of green than Taekwoon’s, widened.

“Nayoung, this is Hoyoung,” Taekwoon said, placing a paw on the younger monster’s head. “He found this place last night, and he’s going to be living with us from now on. He’ll be joining us for the evening meal.”

“I can see why!” she exclaimed, bouncing over to nose at Hoyoung curiously before giving him a friendly cheek nuzzle, which he accepted bashfully. She was larger than him, though compared to Taekwoon, who towered over both of them, it wasn’t by too much. Hoyoung estimated she was probably only a year older than him. “Look at you, you’re skin and bones! We got to get some meat on you, pronto!”

“Um… thanks?”

“No problem!” She beamed at him, tail flicking back and forth energetically. “And if oppa’s already asked you to call him hyung, then you can call me noona, if you want. I don’t mind.”

Hoyoung was thankfully saved from having to answer by Taekwoon, who gently herded them both under the couch. “Hana should be here any minute now, we should get in position.”

The three arranged themselves under the couch so they had a full view of the front door, kitchen, and dining area, with Hoyoung nestled between the other two larger monsters. He was more than slightly intimidated by their presence, but he found it strangely comforting, too, so he bore it stoically as they all camouflaged themselves enough to shield them from any prying human eyes, but not so much that they still couldn’t discern each other’s expressions. Not a moment too soon, either. There was a scrape of a key in a lock, and the front door opened, letting in a young woman dressed in jeans and a thick jacket, long brown hair tied up in a ponytail. In one arm, she carried a full, cloth grocery bag, and in the other was a bouquet of flowers.

After kicking off her shoes, she set the bag on the (now conspicuously clean) table and removed the previous bunch of flowers from Xiening’s vase, tossing them in the garbage can. She then rinsed the vase out in the sink, refilled it, and placed the new bunch of flowers inside before setting it back on the table. Hoyoung couldn’t help repeatedly glancing at the trash can in concern.

Finally, he asked, in a hushed whisper, “Will she be okay? The flower monster? I think her name was-”

“Oh, you’ve met Xiening?” Nayoung asked in surprise.

“Briefly.”

“She’ll be fine, don’t worry. She lives in the vase, not the flowers. Hana bought her at a Chinese thrift store a couple years ago, since Minchan broke her last one.”

“You said _her_ vase… is she like Dongheon, then?” Hoyoung asked.

“Aren’t you quick on the uptake. Yes, she’s an item ghost just like him. She can make flowers last way longer than they otherwise would if they’re placed in her vase, even older ones.” She pointed at Hana, who had removed a number of vegetables from the grocery bag, washed them, and was busy chopping them all into little slices on a cutting board she’d procured from a cabinet. “Hana works at a flower shop, so she likes to take the old flowers that are on the verge of wilting and bring them home. She has a part time job as a nightclub waitress, though, so half the week we won’t see her until late.” Hoyoung had no idea what a “nightclub waitress” was, but he wasn’t about to interrupt and ask. “The other half, though, she likes to come home and make dinner for everyone, even if she’s not the _best_ cook. But that’s okay! Haebin helps pick up the slack in that department when she’s not looking. I assume if you met Xiening, you met Haebin, too?”

Hoyoung nodded. “The kitchen guardian, right? Aren’t those pretty rare, though? How did you get one here?”

“That’s a bit of a funny story,” Taekwoon murmured, ears twitching in amusement. “Apparently, the oven that came with this place when Hakyeon first rented it was in really bad shape, so they decided to get a new, secondhand one. Meanwhile, Haebin’s original family was moving and decided to sell their furniture back in Busan, but she apparently didn’t get the memo, because she fell asleep in the oven, and by the time she woke up, she was in a moving van going to the furniture store where she was eventually picked up by our humans. It was rather serendipitous, really, not to mention lucky for her. None of the humans are super great cooks, even though Hakyeon, Hana, and Minchan try their best, so having a kitchen guardian around helps stretch the food further and makes it taste better.”

“So… Hakyeon, Hana, Mincha, Kangmin, Mina, and… Sanghyuk? Six humans live here?”

“That’s right!” Nayoung confirmed, one ear twitching distractedly before she grinned. “Here comes Minchan now, actually.”

A split second later, the front door burst open, revealing a tall, teenage boy with tousled hair and a wide, toothy smile. “Noona! I’m home!” He kicked off his shoes carelessly and swept into the kitchen like a miniature whirlwind, throwing his backpack on a kitchen chair and his arm around Hana’s shoulders to give her a peck on the cheek. She laughed and pushed him away, swatting him lightly on the shoulder while Hoyoung looked on, intrigued. So this was Minchan. The interaction between the two humans also caused amused fuchsia bubbles and joy’s telltale golden sparkles to immediately fill the air around them, which the three nekomata immediately started drawing in towards themselves to feed on.

“It’s about time, kiddo,” Hana was saying, motioning for him to take the knife from her and continue slicing the vegetables, while she rummaged in the small refrigerator for something. “Was Mrs. Choi late again?”

“Only by a few minutes,” Minchan replied, obediently slicing through a mushroom. “I beat the twins at another round of Mario Kart, though, so it’s all good. Oh, before I forget!” He rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out a small wad of bills. “Mrs. Choi said one of the ladies in her neighborhood association is looking for a part-time babysitting job next week, so that’ll be an extra sixteen thousand won a day as long as it lasts.”

“Minchannie, that’s wonderful!” Hana exclaimed, hugging him around the shoulders and throwing more joyful sparkles into the air. “We’ll finally have enough for a new washing machine soon!” She took the money Minchan pushed into her hands and carefully placed the bills into her purse.

“How much until we have enough?” Minchan asked, looking extremely pleased with himself as he began to chop vegetables again.

“Only about sixty thousand more won to go,” she replied, setting down a box of chicken stock and can of spam on the table. “We’ll probably be able to pay for it in a couple weeks at this rate. Although,” her face fell a little, “you know oppa and I don’t need you to give us _all_ your money, right, Channie? We want you to keep some of it for yourself to spend on other things.”

“Yeah, I know,” Minchan said, carelessly shrugging a shoulder. “But it’s only a couple more weeks, right? The new game I want can wait until then.”

Hana’s expression became very soft, and peach curls started to float through the air around her. “You’re a good kid sometimes, Minchan.”

“Only sometimes?” Minchan waggled his eyebrows, earning him another laugh from Hana.

“Is he like this all the time?” Hoyoung asked a few minutes later through a mouthful of joy as Minchan was deep in the middle of conveying a story about a classmate to his sister, gesticulating wildly with his hands and pulling outrageous faces the entire time.

“Pretty much,” Nayoung replied carelessly, crunching the last amusement bubble between her teeth and licking her chops. “And I’ve lived around him since he was eleven, so I consider myself the definitive expert on his and Mina’s behavior.”

“Right, Taekwoon-hyung did say something about you accompanying them here. Why didn’t they all live together beforehand? They’re all siblings, right? Or am I missing something?”

“Now that, kitten, is a long and storied tale,” Taekwoon said, surreptitiously piling up the last few choice bits of affection in front of Hoyoung. Hoyoung was so touched by the gesture that it took him a few seconds to compose himself before he could eat them. “I don’t know all the details, but from what I’ve gathered over the years, Hakyeon’s mother disappeared when he was a young child, and his father brought him to live with his mate and Hana. Sanghyuk was born a couple years later. Their father was rarely around, and also disappeared right after Sanghyuk turned fourteen and I’d been with them for about two years. Their mother died of cancer a year later.”

Taekwoon went silent for a moment, watching Hana tease Minchan about something or other, and then sighed and continued. “When going through their mother’s things after the funeral, the humans found records she’d hidden from them that their father had had three more children with two different women during the time he was married to her. Hakyeon and Hana decided to write to Minchan and Mina to try to develop some kind of relationship with them, and when they learned how their mother and her mate treated them – basically providing food, shelter, and not much else, gone at work all day, hardly ever spending any time with them – they decided they would invite them to live with them in the new house they were renting for much cheaper than their old apartment. Of course, Minchan and Mina jumped at the chance.”

“How did you get enough food to live?” Hoyoung turned to Nayoung in dismay. “That sounds terrible!”

“Well, it was hard sometimes, but they looked after each other and kept each other’s spirits up, and I never went hungry for too long, even though we were all struggling and there were a few times I thought I’d have to find another place to live.” Nayoung’s eyes took on a distant look before she shook herself and continued. “I think it was a relief for everyone when their brothers and sister found them and brought them here to live instead, though. Their mom didn’t even try to keep them. Handed over custody without a fight. And I know for a fact they’re both _much_ happier here.”

By that time, Minchan and Hana set the pot of chopped vegetables, spam, chicken broth, and other various assorted human foods onto the stove to cook. Minchan left for his room to get started on homework, and Hana departed to the bathroom to take a shower. Hoyoung experienced a moment of panic before remembering that Hongbin had said he would clean up after his own shower earlier that day, and made a mental note to thank the moon rabbit again later.

“Are we done then?” he asked tentatively.

“Not quite yet,” Nayoung grinned. “Everyone else should be getting home soon. Still got room for more?” Hoyoung was already feeling quite full, but he nodded gamely. Taekwoon noticed his hesitance and frowned slightly.

“Don’t overdo it, Hoyoung,” he cautioned. “You shouldn’t feel pressured to eat more than your stomach can handle. It’s okay to work up to more food slowly.”

“I’m okay, hyung,” Hoyoung assured him. “I can still eat a little more, I think. Besides, I want to see more of the humans. I’ll be sharing the house with then from here on out, after all.”

“Our humans _are_ pretty cool,” Nayoung nodded sagely. “Hey, do you know how to play Mouse Tail, Hoyoung? We can play it while we’re waiting for the others to get home.”

Hoyoung nodded again, this time much more eagerly. He hadn’t played the reflex game since he was still living with his siblings and parents, and he was delighted to find that he still had the knack for it, even with his front paws all bandaged up. Taekwoon had to shush both younger monsters multiple times, they were giggling so much, especially when Hana emerged from the bathroom and migrated out onto one of the living room chairs to read a book while waiting for dinner to cook.

Finally, there was a commotion outside, and the front door burst open.

“Ha! I _won_!” crowed a short, preteen girl wearing a school uniform, throwing her hands up in the air. She was maybe a year younger than Minchan, if Hoyoung had to guess. 

“You try running one hundred meters carrying twenty-eight kilograms on your back, _then_ we can talk winning, kid,” huffed a tall youth somewhere in his late teens, carrying a much smaller boy on his back who had to have been Kangmin. “You had an unfair advantage, so it doesn’t count,”

“Look who’s talking Mr. Absurdly Long Legs,” the girl shot back, sticking her tongue out playfully as the tall teen let the boy down from his back and the three removed their shoes. “We had to even the playing field somehow.”

“I think you _both_ did great,” the boy (yep, definitely Kangmin, Hoyoung already recognized that voice) beamed winningly. Quick as lightning, he kissed both his older siblings on the cheek, having to stand on his tiptoes to reach his brother’s. Neither of them was fast enough to dodge.

“Dinner will be ready in ten minutes sharp, kids,” Hana called from the living room. “Get cleaned up, please.”

“Smells really good, noona!” Kangmin said, coming over to give her a kiss as well.

“Thank you, Kangnaengi,” she ruffled his hair affectionately. “Minchan helped make it, too. You should thank him as well.”

“I should, shouldn’t I?” Kangmin’s grin took on a decidedly evil edge, and he ran across the house to his bedroom. “Oh Minchan-hyuuuung! I’m hoooooome!”

As the other two humans also regressed to their own rooms to change and Hana got up to add the last items to the stew pot, Hoyoung gestured to the tall teenager and whispered to Taekwoon, “That’s Sanghyuk, right?”

“Yes, he’s in his last year of high school,” Taekwoon whispered back. “If he’s not at school, he’s either studying or working part time as a tutor, so you probably won’t be seeing him all that much. He’s trying to apply for a number of scholarships so he can get a college degree. College degrees get you higher paying jobs, apparently.” Hoyoung nodded thoughtfully. Hyeyeon had been trying to do the same thing back when Hoyoung was living at her ice cream stand, even though she’d been older than Sanghyuk when she’d enrolled. He’d often snooped over her shoulder when she was doing her homework, and had been repeatedly impressed by the sheer amount of information humans had access to. 

Mina was ready first and wandered out of her room to set the table while Hana got out the side dishes from the refrigerator. She seemed to be muttering to herself as she did so, gesturing wildly and making dramatic motions with the cutlery she held before setting it out at each place. Hoyoung’s bewilderment must have been obvious, because Nayoung snickered.

“Mina fancies herself a thespian,” she murmured to Hoyoung, sounding quite fond. “She wants to be an actress when she grows up, so she joined the drama club a couple years ago when we moved here, and hasn’t shut up about it since.”

As the rest of the humans eventually wandered out of their rooms to the kitchen and began taking their places around the table, the door opened once again, letting in a tall, slender young man bundled up tightly against the chilly weather outside. Tired circles showed under his eyes, and his entire body seemed slightly bent under the weight of an invisible burden on his shoulders.

“Hakyeon-hyung!” Kangmin cried, bounding across the room and flinging himself into the man’s arms, kissing him on his tanned, cold-flushed cheek with a loud smack. “You’re back! I thought we might have to start dinner without you again.”

“Sorry, Kangminnie,” Hakyeon apologized, giving a pouting Kangmin a peck on the forehead as he shed his coat, scarf, gloves, hat, and fatigue. “The bus was running a little late. Now, is that army stew I smell?”

“Yeah! Hana-noona and Minchan-hyung made it.” Kangmin took Hakyeon’s hand and all but dragged him over to the kitchen table.

“It looks delicious, you two,” Hakyeon smiled warmly. “You’re getting much better at cutting vegetables, Channie, I’m impressed.”

Minchan flushed and grinned at the praise as Hana began passing around the side dishes and ladling out the soup. As the meal went on, it became very clear that Hakyeon was the sun that the rest of the family orbited around, the glue that held them all together. He showed interest in each small, seemingly insignificant detail they each chose to share about their day, and each time he spoke to them or gave them a smile, small curlicues of sweet adoration continuously flaked off the younger humans, Kangmin in particular. The boy had scooted his chair closer to Hakyeon’s and periodically kept reaching over to squeeze his hand or knee.

“You didn’t mention how they found Kangmin earlier,” Hoyoung observed, eagerly swallowing down the stray tendrils of the billowing wisps of pale blue contentment the humans gave off as they ate and talked while Taekwoon and Nayoung ate the majority of it. “You said he had a different mother than the other two, right?”

Taekwoon nodded. “They finally tracked him down in an orphanage a couple towns over three years ago after his mother was arrested for drug dealing. Getting custody of him took about a year. Yeonho actually was drawn here a couple years ago because of him. He used to have so many nightmares, and Soyee just couldn’t keep up with them all in addition to everyone else’s.”

“Why? What happened to him?” Hoyoung asked in concern.

“We… don’t exactly know,” admitted Nayoung. “He doesn’t really talk about it. Maybe he doesn’t even really remember himself. Whatever it is, it affected him badly. He’s also really clingy, too. I think the humans call it separation anxiety? It’s gotten better in recent years, especially since he signed up for the junior soccer league at his school, but being away from his siblings for too long still stresses him out.”

As she was still speaking, Kangmin slurped down the last of the ramen noodles from his bowl and turned toward Hakyeon with a look of utmost seriousness on his face. “Hyung, I think there’s a monster living under my bed.” The bottom dropped out of Hoyoung’s stomach and a chill ran down his spine.

“Really, Kangmin?” Mina said, rolling her eyes. “You still believe in that stuff at your age?”

“I’m sure I heard one, noona!” Kangmin protested, staring up at Hakyeon earnestly with wide eyes. “It was growling at me! What if it wants to eat me? I’m scared…”

Hakyeon finished chewing his previous bite and rested his chin on his hand thoughtfully. “How do you know it was growling at you, though, Kangminnie? It could have just been hungry. Maybe it was purring.”

“Do monsters purr?” Kangmin said doubtfully. “And if it was hungry, that just makes it _worse_!”

“Not necessarily,” Hakyeon said, calmly scooping up another bite of noodles with his chopsticks. “Think about it. It could have eaten you last night, right? It didn’t.”

“That’s true…”

“Hyung, you’re not seriously encouraging this,” Sanghyuk said flatly before being hushed by Hana.

“So what do you think, Kangmin?” Hakyeon continued, ignoring Sanghyuk entirely. “How would you see whether the monster is nice or not?” As he spoke, his eyes absently swept across the room, and almost as if by accident came to rest right where Hoyoung crouched under the couch with Taekwoon and Nayoung. The breath caught in Hoyoung’s throat as Hakyeon’s eyes locked with his… and then slid away as he glanced back at Kangmin. Hoyoung breathed again. There was no way Hakyeon had seen him, not with his camouflage still active. He surely was imagining things.

Kangmin thought hard for a good few seconds, before he grinned. “I can set out a snack by the bed! Everyone likes snacks, and the monster can eat it instead of me and not be hungry anymore.”

“Good thinking,” Hakyeon said approvingly. “Why don’t you go pick one out of your stash that you think it would like?”

“Okay!” Kangmin went running across the house to his room.

Minchan let out a loud groan as he went. “Hyung, we’ll get _ants_.”

“It’s just this once, Channie,” Hakyeon said. “If it makes him feel better, what’s the harm?”

“We still should have some insecticide left,” Hana said, patting the boy on the shoulder as she moved to start clearing the table. “Let him be a kid a little longer, okay?”

In the commotion that ensued to clean up the kitchen, Hoyoung saw Nayoung flash him a brief smile. “So you’re gonna eat it, right? The snack?”

“Should I, hyung?” Hoyoung asked Taekwoon diffidently, not wanting to step on any toes. He’d already caused enough problems by alerting Kangmin to his presence in the first place.

“I think,” Taekwoon said slowly, “that it would be a shame if you disappointed the maknae, don’t you?” He suddenly looked thoughtful. “Unless human food disagrees with you?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just…” He made a face, making sure the other two could see it. “Well, apart from the fact it does nothing to actually fill you up at all, the whole… _digesting_ process is gross. Why does human food have to come out of you again once it goes in? It’s gross.”

Nayoung laughed, and Hoyoung could tell Taekwoon was smiling. “He’s kind of got a point,” she giggled.

“But,” Hoyoung hastened to add, “the taste is nice, I’ll give human food that. And if it’s for Kangmin, then I don’t mind doing it. I don’t want him to be afraid of me.”

“That’s the spirit!” Nayoung encouraged, bumping him companionably on the shoulder.

The three nekomata fell silent after that. A drowsy, contented Hoyoung let the humans’ chatter wash over him as he again relished the sensation of being fully satiated for the second day in a row, of being clean and warm and on the mend instead of filthy and cold and constantly in pain. How lucky was he, to find a place, however small, where there were so many happy, loving humans and such generous and kind monsters willing to share them with him? It was more than he’d ever dared to hope for, and he vowed then and there that he wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice. This time, he’d do whatever it took to keep this home from slipping away from him the way his last one had.

Taekwoon must have noticed Hoyoung’s valiant but failing efforts to stay awake, because Hoyoung suddenly found himself enveloped by warm, black fur. “You can sleep if you want, kitten. It’s alright. Everything will still be here when you wake up.”

Hoyoung didn’t have it in him to protest. For the first time in a very long while, he actually felt safe, like nothing would ever hurt him, not when Taekwoon was around. It was a feeling he hadn’t felt since… since he’d been a very young kitten. And he liked it. He liked it a lot.

As he drifted off to sleep, his quiet purrs filling the space beneath the couch, Hoyoung absently wondered what the next day would bring, and found that for the first time in a long while, he was actually looking forward to finding out.

* * *

_So when I'm ready to be bolder,_  
 _And my cuts have healed with time_  
 _Comfort will rest on my shoulder_  
 _And I'll bury my future behind_  
 _I'll always keep you with me  
_ _You'll be always on my mind_  
 _But there's a shining in the shadows_  
 _I'll never know unless I try_

_With every small disaster_   
_I'll let the waters still_   
_Take me away to some place real_

_'Cause they say home is where your heart is set in stone_   
_Is where you go when you're alone_   
_Is where you go to rest your bones_   
_It's not just where you lay your head_   
_It's not just where you make your bed_   
_As long as we're together, does it matter where we go?_

**_\- “Home” by Gabrielle Aplin_ **

* * *

**_Notes:_ **

_\- VRVR’s Hoyoung, Gugudan’s Nayoung, and VIXX’s Taekwoon are nekomata, a supernatural, two-tailed cat monster that originated from Japan. In this AU, nekomata are a melding of the common legends for both the nekomata and another cat-like Japanese monster called a bakeneko, with the added factor that their primary food source is positive human emotion, causing them to flock to human settlements in large numbers. They can shape-shift both into a correlating human form and, provided they’ve reached a certain magic threshold, into a large, tiger-like version of their normal forms. They repay their unaware human hosts for the food and shelter they receive by protecting their place of residence against misfortune or intruders, leading to the (not entirely undeserved) nekomata stereotype of being notoriously territorial and solitary creatures. However, nekomata also have associations with death and calamity, since usually the only time they are actually ever seen by humans is if something very bad happens. Juvenile nekomata are about the size of a normal domestic cat, while adult nekomata are twice that. They look somewhat similar to the[Pokemon](https://img.pokemondb.net/artwork/espeon.jpg) [Espeon](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/4a/19/24/4a1924f94912b04e0ba8096e551d5c04.jpg), and come in a large variety of color patterns and combinations. They also have powerful camouflage abilities to protect themselves from human detection and from other, larger predators._

_\- VRVR’s Yeonho and Gugudan’s Soyee are[baku](https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/field/image/baku-legend-dream-eater.jpg), a Japanese mythological monster that is said to eat bad dreams and nightmares. Baku usually start out around the size of a small human toddler and can grow to be as large as a semi-truck. As they grow larger they require more dreams to sustain them, and can sometimes take as much as a whole apartment block as their own personal territory. As there are different subspecies of the creature, not all of them look exactly the same as the common portrayal of them in art and media. Yeonho, for example, looks much more [wolfish](https://cache.desktopnexus.com/thumbseg/144/144030-bigthumbnail.jpg) than the common baku, and Soyee takes more after a [sloth bear](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Ursus_thibetanus_3_%28Wroclaw_zoo%29.JPG/1200px-Ursus_thibetanus_3_%28Wroclaw_zoo%29.JPG). Baku have the ability to walk in the waking world and in the dream world, making them invisible and inaudible to human senses if they so desire. Some can also take different forms to better blend in to whatever environments they find themselves in._

_\- Gugudan’s Sally/Xiening and VRVR’s Dongheon are similar to Korean dokkaebi or Japanese tsukumogami, in that they are man-made objects that obtained sentience through prolonged interaction of some kind with humans, colloquially called item ghosts in this AU. The older and more in contact with humans an item ghost is, the more powerful, hardy, and resistant to age and damage it becomes. Item ghosts are able to project a physical form separate from their original bodies, normally taking the form of whatever was closest to it during the time it obtained sentience. For Dongheon, this was a[honeybee](https://vampireapologist.tumblr.com/post/178265655763/istolethem-fromthepresident-vampireapologist). For Sally, this was a marigold. As item ghosts closely rely on proximity to humans for purpose and sustenance, attempting to destroy or discard one can cause them to lash out, sometimes violently, at the individual who treated them so thoughtlessly._

_\- VIXX’s Hongbin is a moon rabbit, a type of creature from the celestial plane that tend to visit the earth in search of excitement or adventure during the time of the full moon, secretly doing chores or healing the sick in the homes of humans or other monsters, as they are learned and compassionate creatures as well as creatures of order. They can sometimes be enticed to stay permanently in a lucky household if they find something there that they aren’t willing to leave, such as a food that they cannot get anywhere else or modern conveniences such as cell phones or game systems._

_\- Gugudan’s Haebin is a kitchen guardian, an eclectic collection of creatures that come into being when a kitchen is well-used and well-loved. They normally stay with one kitchen their entire lives, regardless of the humans that come and go, but in cases like Haebin’s they can sometimes be uprooted and relocate if they have a piece of their original kitchen nearby to anchor themselves to. Kitchens that have guardians somehow never have insects or vermin, food takes longer to spoil or burn and tends to taste better as a whole, and appliances last longer than they should._

_\- VRVR's Yongseung is a rose drus, aka a male dryad. Nature spirits normally don't like to live around people, but with the rise of modern society, they're becoming more common._

_\- Also, lest anyone think Kangmin kissing everyone all the time is an exaggeration,[it is not](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC7gfPejMEs). The lad is the clingiest maknae to ever maknae and no mistake._

**Author's Note:**

> Again, if you liked this AU and want to see more of it, please consider leaving me a comment or two! ♥ We still haven’t met the whole Jellyfish family yet, after all, so if you want to see them at some point, do let me know. ;)


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